On First Reading: Let the Redistricting Begin

@startleseasily is a fervent observer of the Metro government's comings and goings. In this column, "On First Reading," she'll recap the bimonthly Metro Council meetings and provide her analysis. You can find her in the pew in the corner by the mic, ready to give public comment on whichever items stir her passions. Follow her on Twitter here.

In back-to-back meetings this week, the Metro Council continued debate on a bill to loosen restrictions on unrelated people living together and devolved into chaos over redistricting. 

Out of Body

Have you ever walked into the wrong classroom, sat down and gotten about 10 minutes into the lecture before realizing you screwed up? But you’re in the front row, so it would be super obvious if you left now. So you’re stuck. We’ve all been there, right? OK, so take that feeling and multiply it by 27. That’s the level of dissociation I felt on Tuesday night, sitting through an unadvertised open-mic night in a stuffy knockoff Ryman Auditorium with terrible acoustics and offensively fluorescent lighting.

But Their Emails!

Councilmembers continue to thwart CM Sean Parker’s intent with his bill to change how the zoning code defines “family.” The last time the council considered the bill, CM Russ Pulley successfully rallied enough scared colleagues around the specter of massive numbers of “unrelated vehicles” clogging our streets to move the proposed cap down from five to four. And let us not forget, five was itself a compromise! A literal halfway point between Parker’s original proposal — which would have allowed for seven unrelated individuals to live together — and the current cap of three. 

On Tuesday, Parker brought a new compromise to the floor, in direct response to concerns from his colleagues about whether five is the right number for, say, a two-bedroom house. Parker’s new proposal would set the cap at either four or five, depending on the number of bedrooms. A compromise on a compromise, if you will. After a bunch of bullshit bad-faith arguments from the loudest and most annoying voices in the room, CM Zach Young gave a rousing speech in favor of Parker’s amendment. “My God, y’all, no wonder there’s a homelessness crisis in this city!” Young proclaimed. Young represents Goodlettsville, a famed progressive oasis where five unrelated people can live together. I asked Young whether this has created an unworkable, unlivable hellscape. “There is not massive turmoil in Goodlettsville,” Young assured me. 

The vote on Parker’s proposal was all tied up: 17-17, with two abstentions. Enter Vice Mayor Jim Shulman. Faced with the opportunity to put his actions where his rhetoric is and actually do something to help ease the stress on people just trying to exist in this godforsaken city, Shulman instead caved to pressure from the loudest voices in his inbox, voting Parker’s new compromise down. And this, dear reader, is when I stormed out, spewing profanities. Shulman explained his decision to me as a matter of following the will of the majority — that is, those who have the time, resources and knowledge to send emails to their elected representatives. “On this particular matter,” Shulman said, “the emails I received against the bill far outweighed those in support. Clearly with a tie vote on Councilmember Parker’s amendment, councilmembers were not comfortable either.” I bet they’re more comfortable than people who are sleeping on the literal streets for lack of affordable housing in Nashville, but that doesn’t seem to be of too much concern for this “most progressive council ever.” Shulman did support a subsequent deferral effort by Parker “to allow more work on the bill in an effort to reach some consensus.” 

Re: Re-Redistricting 

The council is hard at work trying to sort through the unbridled chaos brought about by the state legislature’s mandate forcing the body to cannibalize itself. Vice Mayor Shulman called a special council meeting on Wednesday to consider a resolution directing the Metro Planning Department as to the council’s preferred number of districts and breakdown of district council seats to at-large seats. To add to the confusion, we’ve even got “super districts” being thrown into the mix. These would operate like regional at-large seats, covering multiple council districts.

A special-called Planning and Zoning Committee meeting preceded the council meeting. After nearly two hours of legal, procedural and planning-related questions about the seven distinct proposals that CMs have advanced so far, CM Ginny Welsch moved for a deferral of the legislation until April 4, the date of the council’s next regularly scheduled meeting. Committee Chair Brett Withers, who was hoping for the committee to provide recommendations on each proposal to the full body, tried to simply not “recognize” Welsch’s motion. This was deeply hilarious to watch, particularly because, by that point, Withers had cut several committee members’ microphones in an effort to move things along. So Welsch was just screaming into the air as Withers became increasingly flustered. Council Director Margaret O. Darby gently reminded Withers of the limits of his chairmanship, and after some more confusion and some more non-mic’d yelling — this time from CM Kathleen Murphy — the committee voted to recommend that the council defer the resolution to April 4 and schedule a special public hearing for that night to get feedback from constituents. 

The council meeting that followed was a procedural train wreck from start to finish. Shulman, not known for leading an efficient meeting on a good night, was all the way off his game, providing little to no structure or guidance for how the various motions should proceed. This led to frustration and repeated calls for a “point of order” from CMs who were, like me, desperately trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Shulman seemed to be approaching this as a spectator to the chaos, leaving the 39-member body to mostly fend for itself in a meeting that could have been an email. It ended with a decisive vote to support the committee’s recommendation for a deferral and public hearing on April 4.

In the meantime, the planning department still has a job to do. The state legislation requires the planning commission to forward a new map for the council’s consideration by April 10. And with no direction from the council — an emailed straw poll from the mayor’s office revealed that no proposal received more than eight “first choice” votes from CMs — Planning Director Lucy Kempf has made it clear that she will direct staff to draw up a map with 15 districts and five at-large seats. Based on an analysis by city planner and local hero Greg Claxton, who led the city’s most recent redistricting effort, this breakdown may provide the best chance to guarantee minority representation.

Trent Benge, a high school senior who’s been at the state Capitol frequently this session lobbying against bills that would trample all over Nashvillians’ rights, got to gavel in Wednesday night’s meeting. Even though Trent clearly infected the chamber with whatever bad mojo is floating around up on the Hill, I was thrilled to watch him get some much-deserved public recognition for his efforts.